Parker Library on TV

One of the programmes that was filmed in the library earlier this year was on BBC4 this week. It’s still available on the BBC iPlayer.

The programme’s called Guilty Pleasures, part of the BBC4 season on luxury, and the second episode, on the Middle Ages, focused on ‘the clash between luxury and Christianity’. How did the Church justify expensive and beautiful objects for religious use, what was the relationship between luxury and sinfulness, how did the nobility use Christian ideals to justify their own pursuit of luxury? Some of these questions were answered by Professor Miri Rubin, Professor Paul Binski and Dr Helen Foxhall Forbes during a discussion held in the library.